Sorry I haven’t written in some time, to those checking in. Busy week. Fortunately while I’ve been running around much of Oregon working on other projects, researching hot shops, etc, the team continued to forge forward with erecting the steel and the concrete work. Here you can see Levi diggin’ away pulling concrete down the shoot to get it in the last sculpture pad. It was cold and things were setting up quickly.
Levi, in the concrete shoot. Pouring the last pad.
Jeremy spraying off the top layer to expose the rock. Brrrrrrr
The concrete has a calcium additive that helps it set up faster, also known as an accelerator. This is partially to deal with the cold temperatures. It was to freeze a day or so after this pour so we covered everything with plastic and straw. In this image above you can start to see the expansion joints Levi added. It almost looks like a ginkgo leaf, the slab that is.
Josh and Kenny set perlins. Nice Mt. Adams view!
Things progress on the side of the steel erecting. Here you can see the main trusses and columns set. Josh and Kenny are the tiny people in that green man lift setting the purlins. Purlins are the cross member supports that run from truss to truss. You can also get an idea of the Mt. Adams view we’ll be having from the front of the building.
Josh and Kenny setting the last end column. Sweet!
Its amazing to see how such big pieces of steel go up so quickly. Its all in the details, the bolts, etc that obviously take a great deal of time. As you can see even though this week was bitter cold at times, the sun still came out to warm things up a bit. I think the temperature ranges swayed from 8 degrees to 25.
Glad they know how to keep warm. I think just a few minutes after this picture, they’d been moving around so much they started taking off layers. Not Me!
So while they were busy at the site, Thursday I took a trip to Cannon Beach to visit Ice Fire Glassworks, owned and operated by Jim and Suzanne. Nicest people. If you are ever out that way, stop in an check out their work. They blow some beautiful glass. They were excessively generous with their time and thoughts on running a hot shop (also known as a glass blowing studio). While we reviewed equipment choices and layout, I also admired their beautiful work.
Window display at Ice Fire Glassworks in Cannon Beach
The drive to Cannon Beach was beyond lovely with it only getting warmer as I approached the ocean. Sunny and crisp, I gave myself a few minutes to enjoy the sand, sun, and crashing waves before I headed back toward Portland.
35 degrees never felt so good.
After this brief but beautiful visit to the beach I returned fortunately to then pay a visit to Effective Heat Glassworks and Brent Hickenbotham the owner. While I’m in the midst of designing the hotshop, this company (Brent) will be building the furnace. Seeing that I built the last large piece of equipment for the studio, it is a huge decision for me to select an individual and or company to provide something of this nature. Although after a myriad of questions, which many of you know I am good for, and many good words about Brent’s expertise and reliability, I have chosen this route.
A little glass furnace history. So within the art glass world, an ever evolving realm in itself, artists have most frequently built their own glass melters. Designs have come and gone, been modified and expended a tremendous amount of energy along the way. Obviously the cost of running a piece of equipment at roughly 2100 degrees continuously in order to have several hundred lbs of hot glass available on demand is no cheap feat. So in the last few years when the development of the moly-furnace (named after the type of elements used for heating (molybdium) came about huge strides were made. Now after several years of development, Brent being directly involved in building, testing, and research, the furnaces being made have an excessively high level of efficiency due to the combination of thermal refractories, form design, high level electronic controls, etc. Brent would have much fancier language to use describing all of this, but you get the point.
Sanding board.
So the next day, I headed to the studio to be joined by Scott (friend, Architect, and art enthusiast) and Lonnie (fellow sculptor and curious about glass). The task for the day was to sand the 14ft by 8ft brick bed of my large kiln, flat and level, then level all the individual bricks for very large shelves to sit on for firing. Thanks to their help we accomplished this task by attaching a huge piece of sand paper to a board and framework (which you can see in the front of the picture), the laser level checked areas across the bed, then proceeded to sand.
This worked out wonderfully. And while it was cold, we kept moving and managed to get the job done in 8 hours. Here they are and the beautiful shelves that now are ready to receive large amounts of melting glass. Thanks for tuning in. More to come next week.
Thanks to Lonnie and Scott for another leveling story
Big Glass on its way!
